Almost 15,000 children are “missing” from the education system and are not on
the register of any school, according to a report.

It says of the total, about a third are children whose whereabouts are unknown
either to the school or the local authority and have simply disappeared.

These include Roma or travellers’ children and children of armed forces, both
groups who move around regularly, children those who are permanently
excluded an have slipped through the net, young offenders, young teenage
mothers and children who have recently arrived in the UK.